Country Views: Dusty Daze

Escape Route: Martin Luther King Jr BLVD bike path

It seems that this year will be a year book-ended by dust. We started out very dry, in a severe drought, by the way, then it flip-flopped to very wet. Now it hasn't rained in any significant amount for almost two months and everything is turning brown. The dust on the gravel roads is at about the worst levels I've seen in a while. That's saying something since we've had two and a half years of very dry conditions with a mini-break this past Summer with a few other wet spots here and there. 

The warm temperatures and every plant dying and drying down doesn't help matters. But since it has been so nice, I am still riding in Summer kit. Usually by this point I've been in tights and a vest or wind shell a few times. 

This past Friday was breezy out of the East-Southeast, so I grabbed the Tamland Two and headed out East on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the bike path there. Then it was out to the country on Newell Road.

The low angle of the Sun makes it look late but in reality it was only about 2:00pm when I took this image.

Many fields have received their Fall "hair cut".

I'm not sure what it was but the wind didn't really get to me as much as it does sometimes. Why that was I cannot say, but it felt good just to cruise into the wind at a steady pace. Now, I won't lie, it was great to turn out of the wind on Pilot Grove Road heading South. I hadn't been down that way in a while either, so it was nice to get reacquainted with the scenery.

Lounging bovines.

The corn harvest is just getting cranked up now.

I found it rather odd this day to not find anyone harvesting. I know it has been a kind of touch-and-go situation with how dry it is. There was one big field fire that destroyed a cornfield already in Iowa and several counties have instituted "burn bans" in the open due to how dry it is. 

Check out the dust hanging in the air after a vehicle had passed by this place.

You could literally see dust moving through the air in the form of clouds being driven by the steady, strong wind. My nose was getting gritty inside, and whenever a vehicle passed the dust was so thick it blinded me momentarily. Then if I was going East-West, the dust kind of hovered over the road for a bit. The wind didn't really move it off, and I was amazed by that since this was no small breeze blowing. 

A motorcyclist traveling South on McStay Road.

This was taken several minutes after I was dusted by a passing vehicle.

I figured to leave the dust behind South of Elk Run and get on pavement but it was about the least of my worries as I discovered that some of my non-driveside rear wheel spokes were unwinding themselves and causing some bad wobble. I was quite concerned, having several miles to go to get back home, but I nursed it along and eventually made it back in one piece. 

I guess I'll have to try and test the Irwin Cycles wheel set and see if it holds up, like I believe it will. Meanwhile I have  a wheel set repair to address.